The sexy third-person shooter “Waifu Impact 2” is now available for the PS5 and PS4
Press release:
Barcelona, Spain. November 7th, 2024.
The Barcelona-based (Spain) indie games publish[...]
I am now 100% recovered from my stomach flu. So I’m now finally able to work like I did before I got sick, and with that said. I’m starting off by taking a swing at Waypoints nonsense post about Atlus and “Catherine: Full Body”, and it’s called “Atlus, We Haven’t Forgotten Your Mishandling of LGBTQ Characters” (Waypoint published that post on the 24th of December, and it was written by Carol Grant). In a way, I guess that you could say that Waypoint took over from where Kotaku and Polygon left us with their “Catherine: Full Body” posts.
Waypoint (Vice) are the last people on this planet that should run their mouths about “mishandling” and “hope for a course correction”, because as you might already know. Vice has had problems with real-life sexual harassment cases at their very own office. So perhaps they should get their own game together before they start whine about fictional characters in video games.
Any ways, so what’s so “bad” about that one article by Waypoint then? Well, for starter, the whole post is nothing less than one big Atlus hit piece. You don’t even have to take my word for it either, just check out the very beginning of Waypoint’s post:
Headline:
“Atlus, We Haven’t Forgotten Your Mishandling of LGBTQ Characters”
Intro:
“Atlus has a history of mishandling LGBTQ characters. The new ‘Catherine: Full Body’ trailer doesn’t inspire hope for a course correction.”
“Content-warning: transphobia, and graphic descriptions of transphobic violence”
Just when you thought that no one could possibly top Kotaku and Polygon’s garbage posts about “Catherine: Full body”…Well, that’s Waypoint for ya right there.
Furthermore, Waypoint pushes the same exact fabricated outcry and controversy as Kotaku and Polygon did with their recent posts about “Catherine: Full Body”. However, I would say that Waypoint has managed to top both Polygon and Kotaku with ease. As Waypoint went even further with their transphobia and LGBTQ rant against Atlus:
“There are two defining images in the reveal of Catherine: Full Body’s newest character, Rin. The first is in the trailer, which ends with protagonist Vincent waking up next to a naked Rin and getting a good look below her waist, eyes going wide with terror as he lets out a horrified wail. The second image is in a poster with Rin lifting her skirt to show us her genitals, which are obscured in shadow while Vincent’s traumatized eyes stand right in front of them. Ads with the other Catherine girls also covered their genitals for titillation. Rin’s ad is not titillation. The framing, the contrast of colors, Vincent’s eyes, all convey a specific visual language of dread, of an unspeakable horror hiding in plain sight, a monstrosity in the guise of a girl.”
“This is perhaps the most commonly used transphobic trope in media: the deceptive trans woman, tricking hapless heterosexual men into having sex with them. It’s a lazy, regressive device on its own; but with Catherine’s developer Atlus, it comes with a storied history of degrading their trans and queer characters.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself, and plenty of other people tweeted out similar things at Waypoint as well.
The last part is extra interesting, because just like I pointed out in my post about Polygon and Kotaku, we do not know for a fact if Rin is trans character or whatever. I mean, Rin could be an angel for all we know. That’s also why I thought that Eliza Yuriko (said professor and Game designer in training) made some really good points on the said matter via Twitter (as seen in the pictures down below). Because she (just like me) also pointed out that there is a chance that Rin isn’t a trans character at all, and yet Waypoint didn’t pay all that much attention or thought to that option…
Just like I pointed out in my OP about Kotaku and Polygon’s “Catherine: Full Body” post, Rin might actually be an angel. Thus, she could be a character without no genitalia. However, just like Polygon and Kotaku, Waypoint seems to have missed out or ignored this possibility.
For those who have no idea who Naoto Shirogane is, Naoto is a female detective from the Persona series who dresses like a man (she wants everyone to believe that she’s a man, because her family has a history of male detectives). Well, the point here would be that most people doesn’t see her as a trans character. So I have no idea why Waypoint even brought Naoto up at all…
I shouldn’t be surprised though, because that was never the idea with Waypoint’s post about “Catherine: Full Body” and Atlus. I mean, it simply takes you a couple of minutes to realize that the post is just a ragebait/clickbait/hit piece that’s meant to cause fabricated outcry and controversy over something which hasn’t even been proven to be true yet(the idea would be to bash Atlus and give them a bad reputation). Furthermore, why did Waypoint even bring up Naoto? I mean, she’s not even a trans character. So I take it that Waypoint just used her as a way to push their own “Atlus = Transphobia twats” agenda?
This is another important point to be made regarding Waypoint’s “Catherine: Full Body” post, because why shouldn’t game devs (or anyone else for that matter) be able to make fun out of LGBT people? I mean, in my opinion, you should be able to make fun out of everyone (no matter race, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief or whatever).
It’s also worth pointing out that Waypoint (Vice) is no stranger to posts of this kind (you know, posts that are of really low quality?). In the matter of fact, we have written quite a few posts about Vice in the past (posts such as “Keep your social activism and fascism bs out of our games!“, “Vice’s vice with the lovely ladies of Final Fantasy XV ” and “Heat Street´s Forza Horizon 3 response to Vice Gaming“).
Even though Atlus hasn’t officially announced that Rin is trans character, that sure hasn’t stopped sites such as Polygon, Kotaku and Waypoint from fabricating outcry over something which might not even be true.
Well, I think you get the point, and fair enough. I may not be an expert when it comes to trans questions, but even I understand that it’s better to wait and see what Atlus have in mind for Rin in “Catherine: Full Body”, then it is to fabricate outcry over something that hasn’t even been proven to be correct yet (I guess that cross dressing = Trans in the eyes of Waypoint?). I would also like to point out that there is no better recommendation for a game developer to be hated by sites such as Kotaku, Polygon and Vice. Because that’s like the “seal of approval” when it comes to great games. Simply put, when sites of that kind start to talk trash about a game like “Catherine: Full Body” then it’s almost a golden rule that the said game is a must buy on release.
And with that said, what’s your take on this matter? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section down below!
Credit:
Oiran Chloe
KRS
Source:
Waypoint (“Atlus, We Haven’t Forgotten Your Mishandling of LGBTQ Characters”)
Waypoint
Variety
NY post
NY times
Telegraph.co.uk
***Disclaimer***
This is a personal opinion of the writer, and it doesn’t necessarily represent the other writers (nor The Gaming Ground´s) opinions.
***Disclosure***
I’m not a fan of Waypoint or Vice.
Robin “V-Act” Ek
Editor in chief
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround
More by Robin Ek:
Tags: Atlus, Catherine, Catherine: Full Body, Full Body, Gamers, SJWs, Vice, Waypoint
